scans_daily: Catwoman #4

Diane Darcy (

aeka) wrote in

scans_daily,
@ 2011-12-28 07:32 pm UTC

Entry tags:

char: catwoman/selina kyle, creator: guillem march, creator: judd winick, title: catwoman

Catwoman #4

We learn a little bit more about Selina's past and are introduced to more people in her life. At best it appears as though the Frank Miller prostitute origin has been retconned out of continuity. So I guess one point for Winick?

Reload Image

Heh, I don't know about anyone else, but I thought Selina looked a bit like Sailor Star Fighter in those last few panels.

Anyway, from the last few pages of Catwoman #4, an interview with the boys behind this book:

1. What do you love about writing/drawing these characters?

Judd: Catwoman is brilliant, damaged, sophisticated, crass, and a born survivor who also seems at times to have a death wish. The complexities leap her.

Guillem: I like lonely characters so I can focus on the body language, facial expressions, how he or she interacts with the background.

2. What is your favourite thing about your part in the New 52?

Guillem: It will be long remembered and I'm incredibly happy I got the chance to be a part of it. I feel I'm adding something to the character, putting a bit of my own vision of Catwoman in the book.

Judd: The fresh stories we get to tell, how we get to hit the ground running, and how we can welcome new readers. All the stories are open to EVERYONE.

3. Can you tease the villains they will be fighting in upcoming issues?

Judd: Well, Catwoman's a criminal, so her adversaries cross a few spectrums. She'll have a run-in with an ugly mobster named BONE, have a budding romance with a member of the Gotham Police Department, and OH YEAH--there's Batman!

Guillem: See Judd's answer. I just want some of the villains we have in the book to stay for a long time because they're great. I love Bone.

4. What new things are you doing with these characters?

Judd: We are getting back to the core of Selina Kyle. She is, first and foremost, a thief. She steals not to survive, but because she digs it.

5. How will you shock readers?

Guillem: Every issue I've drawn to date has a very strong surprise or cliffhanger at the end. I'm always shocked when I read Judd's scripts.

Judd: As of Catwoman #1, pardon the pun, but the cat's out of the bag on one of our MAJOR surprises--the Catwoman/Batman romance.

6. What is your favourite page in the first few issues and why?

Judd: Am I allowed to say ALL of them? If I HAVE to choose, it's page 3 of the first issue. Catwoman crashing out her window in a hail of gunfire, half in her costume, whip in one hand, cat carrier in the other. This says EVERYTHING about our book and Catwoman. Dangerous, sexy, and unexpected.

Guillem: Issue #1, page1. All started there. I hope it takes a long time to finish.

(Read 86 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)

no subject

salinea
2011-12-29 02:17 am UTC (link)

For another, she wasn't a prostitute in Year One. Look at her first appearance in that story when Bruce is in disguise in the East End--her demeanor, her clothing, the way she's addressing her client and the way he's replying--she's clearly a dominatrix. While that's in the realm of sex work, that's not the same as a prostitute.
What?

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 12 comments) (Show 12 comments)

	no subject darkknightjrk 2011-12-29 02:23 am UTC (link)
	I couldn't find a full page, but here's the gist of what I'm talking about: (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 11 comments) (Show 11 comments)

	no subject salinea 2011-12-29 02:26 am UTC (link)
	That's not... What i don't get is your "Selina wasn't a prostitute because she was a dominatrix" thing. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 10 comments) (Show 10 comments)

no subject

darkknightjrk
2011-12-29 02:31 am UTC (link)

The big difference, from what I understand, is that dominatrices (I think that's the plural for that) typically don't exchange in intercourse with their client. It's literally just whipping, beating, and humiliating the client for their pleasure. Again, it's typically grouped in with sex work, but it is of a different vein.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 9 comments) (Show 9 comments)

no subject

salinea
2011-12-29 02:39 am UTC (link)

I am frankly very ill at ease by the fact so many people use this (which may or may not be true of Femdom sex worker, I assume it might depends from people to peopel, really) to distantiate their vision of Selina from the vision they have of a prostitute. It's like they think that having intercourse for money is lowly and degrading in a way that D/s for money isn't - which is both a rather narrow vision of what sex is, and derogatory to sex workers who do have intercourse.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 8 comments) (Show 8 comments)

	no subject darkknightjrk 2011-12-29 02:47 am UTC (link)
	That definitely wasn't my intent to say one is more "lowly" than the other--my feeling is that the only thing that makes it degrading comes from the efforts of our lawmakers to make it illegal and crack down on it. I just think there's enough differences to make that distinction. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject salinea 2011-12-29 02:52 am UTC (link)
	okay. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

no subject

rocketlindy
2011-12-29 02:47 am UTC (link)

While it's icky when people try to "defend" the origin by making out like being a dominatrix is somehow "better" than other kinds of sex work, I think that it does make more sense for the character (more sense, not lots of sense.)

Headcanon says that Selina just likes shiny things and thrills. I like to have characters without so much Freudian baggage.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

no subject

darkknightjrk
2011-12-30 06:38 pm UTC (link)

Like I said, I wasn't trying to make it that one is better than the other--just that there are differences in terms of the dynamics of the acts.

And I don't think of it as so much Freudian baggage and more shaping her more to be a dark mirror of Bruce. In a lot of ways, she represents both the good and the bad that came from Batman appearing in Gotham City.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject auggie18 2011-12-29 05:16 am UTC (link)
	I always thought of it more as people clarifying what exactly she did. Like, if you were a hostess at a restaurant and someone referred to your job as a waitress, you'd correct them. It's not denigration, just clarification. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

	no subject salinea 2011-12-29 05:25 am UTC (link)
	Point. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

no subject

katya
2011-12-29 04:10 pm UTC (link)

This. I've known a good number of women in the sex industry and they are damn proud of what they do. They don't take kindly to being called a prostitute if they're really a dominatrix, and they don't like women who perform sex acts for money trying to claim that they're strippers instead of prostitutes.

It's like, I work as a nanny and some families will use the words "nanny" and "babysitter" interchangeably, and that pisses off a lot of nannies because it's not the same thing.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

no subject

whitesycamore
2011-12-29 05:39 pm UTC (link)

It's like, I work as a nanny and some families will use the words "nanny" and "babysitter" interchangeably, and that pisses off a lot of nannies because it's not the same thing.

The main difference is that nannies sing beautifully/have magic powers, right? ;D

I'm still waiting for popular culture to realise that a professional dominatrix and a woman who happens to have a dominant sexuality are not interchangeable, and will generally not behave the same way in the bedroom.

For anyone who's still confused - one of them performs dominance in a way designed to satisfy male desires in exchange for financial reward, and the other engages in dominant behaviour/fantasies in order to get *herself* off. Some women may do both, but sex and sex *work* are still not the same thing.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

(Read 86 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)

Account name:	Log in with OpenID?
Password:	Forget your password?
	Remember me